ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

The Windrush Caribbean Film Festival (WCFF) aims to engage and educate audiences in cinemas and art venues, about the contributions of the Windrush generation and its impact on the country through screenings across the UK. Due to COVID-19, the inaugural edition of WCFF will take place online. The six day digital festival also includes discussions and master classes.

The festival is the brainchild of Solomon whose award-winning film HERO, inspired by WW2 and Windrush hero Ulric Cross, toured the UK to critical acclaim in 2019. Its success was the inspiration for this extensive festival.

WCFF will include films whose themes are centred around racism, colonialism, immigration, and cultural contributions, with the goal of airing, discussing and celebrating this iconic generation.

WCFF is sponsored by Solomon’s Caribbean Tales Media Group , and led by a core team including Garry Stewart of Recognize Black Heritage & Culture, Joy Coker of Alt-Africa Magazine as Lead Programmer, Shiloh PR’s Evadney Campbell and Patricia Hamzahee of Integriti Capital, with support from The Funding Network and Unison.

2020 Programme:

• 23rd October, 7:00 PM – Celebrating our Achievements

501 Not Out (dir. Sam Lockyer, United Kingdom, 2019) – Over twenty-five years on from Brian Lara’s world-record breaking innings for Warwickshire at Edgbaston, brand new documentary 501 Not Out tells the story of cricket’s first global superstar.

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• 31st October, 5:00 PM – Jamaica Night

‘Just ah likkle piece of Jamaica in Port Talbot‘ – (dir. Tracy Pallant, Wales, 2019), 40 minutes

Faith Walker’s parents lived in Enfield Street, Port Talbot in their Jamaican community located within a Welsh industrial town. In the film, we meet many residents of Enfield Street, such as Mrs Gertrude Wellington (Mrs G) now 93, who came to Wales in 1956. “I had heard of how Britain was paved with gold…”. “But all I could see was chimney and smoke and brick walls. …” Lived experiences of resilience, friendship, racism, love and the overall passion about creating a better life for future generation are all reflected in these stories of the Port Talbot, Windrush Generation.

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• 31st October, 7:00 PM – Our Legacy

The Peckham Wall: A Silent Voice (dir. Tracey Francis, UK, 2018), 2 minutes – A short experimental film based on a letter written by a child about an exhibition on The Peckham Wall about Black Heroes.

Footsteps of the Emperor (dir. Dr. Shawn Naphtali Sobers, UK, 1999), 50 minutes – This docudrama highlights the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I, his wife Empress Menen Afsaw, the royal family and government and religious entourage, lived in exile in Bath during 1936- 1941, during the Mussolini invasion of their country.

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• 6th November, 7:00 PM – Our Stories

Harold Phillips: Lord Woodbine (dir. Lana Hughes, UK, 2020), 28 minutes – Alexander D Great’s song “Harold Phillips, Lord Woodbine” commemorates the life of the Trinidadian calypsonian who coached the Beatles in their early teens. Videographer Lana Hughes captures Alexander’s performance, interspersed with pictures informing us of Woodbine’s arrival in 1948 on the Empire Windrush, as well as his musical career in Liverpool, including driving the Beatles to Hamburg for the first time in 1960. His influence on the “Fab Four” has been somewhat “airbrushed out”. This video goes someway to towards restoring his reputation as their musical mentor.

Hard Stop (dir. George Amponsah, United Kingdom, 2015) 85 minutes – Hard Stop is an intimate documentary revealing the story, away from all press coverage, of Mark Duggan’s friends and family following his death during a ‘hard stop’ by the police. For 28 months, director George Amponsah filmed around Broadwater Farm, where Duggan grew up. He follows childhood friends Marcus and Kurtis closely, as they attempt to get on with their lives, look for a job, talk about the discrimination they experience on a daily basis. The police killing of Mark Duggan in London in 2011 ignited the worst civil unrest in recent British history

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• 4th November, 4.30 PM – Race & Representation

Jamaican Men: A Collector’s Choice I Art Exhibition July 2012 London (dir. Dionne Walker, UK, 2012), 9 minutes – Art Jamaica short film is significant for many reasons, not least that the collector Theresa Roberts was part of a group that lobbied the government around the Windrush Scandal but importantly documentary reflects an active relationship between Jamaica, Africa and Britain, you will see this through the art pieces we decided to highlight, from the abstract, landscape and figurative paintings to the sculptures which negotiates a post-colonial timeline, from Eurocentrism to African Nationalism.

Iciline Brown, our Windrush Generation Story (dir. Monica D. Brown, UK, 2016), 10 minutes – A successful Windrush story about fighting to win.

The Story of Sam King MBE (dir. Quince Garcia, UK, 2019), 17 minutes – Sam King MBE was the first Black Mayor of Southwark. He fought in WW2, returned to Britain on The Windrush Empire where he collected the contact details of fellow passengers, remaining in contact with them, and was later inspired to set up the Windrush Foundation. He was involved in many activities that moved the U.K in a direction where the nation would acknowledge a new type of diversity, culture and politics. Joyce Fraser of Black Heroes Foundation meets with family members and others on a journey of discovery to tell his story through a series of interviews.

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• 7th November, 7:00 PM – Our Voyage

Hero: Inspired by the Extraordinary Life and Times of Mr. Ulric Cross (dir. Frances-Anne Solomon, Canada, Trinidad & Tobago, 2019) 110 minutes – HERO is the story of Ulric Cross, who in 1941, left his small island home in Trinidad to seek his fortune, and became the RAF’s most decorated West Indian airman of WWII. His life took a dramatically different course when he followed the call of history and joined the independence movements sweeping Africa in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

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• 8th November, 2:00PM – Windrush Women

Windrush Child (Rainbow Collective Animation Club, The Green, United Kingdom, 2018), 2 minutes – A tribute to the Windrush generation by our students in Peckham and Nunhead. “Windrush Child”, a beautiful animated adaptation of John Agard’s poem, created by students aged 6-11 year old students at Rainbow Collective Animation Club in Peckham, London.

Focus Claudia Jones (dir. Joyce Fraser, Zoom Presentation, United KIngdom, 2020), 11 minutes – Filmed theatre enactment on the life of Claudia Jones 2020. A new play by the Black heroes Foundation.

Thanks For Coming (dir. Daisy Jones, United KIngdom, 2019), 4 minutes – Thanks For Coming deals with the mistreatment of the Windrush Generation that was highlighted in the news in 2018. This scandal speaks of a growing attitude towards immigrants in our country and asks the question: What is it that makes someone British?

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• 8th November, 4:00 PM – Windrush Chronicles

Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle (United Kingdom, 2019) 60 minutes – Monologues that reveal the hopes, desires, achievements, shattered dreams and broken promises of a single fictionalised family over four generations.

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• 8th November, 7:00PM – Awards Ceremony + Festival Closing

7:30 PM – PAULETTE WILSON AWARD – The Paulette Wilson Windrush Award, named after the prominent activist who was wrongly detained by the Home Office, went on to become one of the faces of the Windrush scandal justice campaign and died in July, will be given to an individual who has been instrumental in advancing the narrative to achieve justice for the Windrush generation. PATRICK VERNON (Host) FRANCES-ANNE SOLOMON (Guest) GARRY STEWART (Guest)

8:30 PM – IN CONVERSATION WITH CHARLIE PHILLIPS – Hosted by Yvonne Connikie

Featured films:

Reunion (dir. Frances Anne Solomon, UK, 1992), 30 minutes – In 1943, 300 middle class “coloured” women from across the West Indies were recruited to the ATS, a branch of the British Army. This film documents for the first time the contribution of these women to WW2.

Rootical: An Audience with Charlie Phillips (dir. Nike Hatzidimou, UK, 2006), 25 minutes – This is the story of Charlie Phillips, an Afro Caribbean photographer who documented the social implications of immigration in the 1950’s and 1960’s in Notting Hill. Charlie has experienced much ignorance with regards to the importance of his work. The working class seems to be excluded from the art world. In discussion with Benjamin Zephaniah and the curator of the Museum of London, they get to the bottom of that issue.

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